Polar Bears Disturbance

From: Ian Stirling <[email protected]> Subject: polar bears disturbance Date: March 25, 2020 at 10:26:09 AM PDT To: Richard Weber <[email protected]> Dear Richard, Thanks for your email enquiring about the possibility of bothering polar bears at a ski camp at Ayr Lk, about 55 km W of Clyde River, from mid-April to mid- May. I am not personally familiar with the area around your camp, though I conducted field research on polar bears worked about SE Baffin as far north as Broughton Island, through 4 spring seasons back in the late 1970s. I am also quite familiar with the polar bear field studies conducted by colleagues on eastern and NE Baffin in subsequent years. It is my understanding that the maternity dens that have been reported from eastern Baffin Island have mainly been found and reported from a relatively narrow band within a few km of the coast, and not as far inland (55 km) as your camp or up on glaciers. Areas around the heads of fiords are favoured by family groups in early spring because they tend to have good populations of pupping ringed seals for mother bears to hunt after leaving the maternity den but few adult males that might be dangerous to cubs at that time of year. Families also hang around the heads of fiords later in the spring as breakup approaches and and open water takes over but I don't think this would conflict with any of your activities. One thing I did see a couple of times on SE Baffin was tracks of single bears going from one fiord system to another via mountain passes exiting and entering the fiords respectively, part of the way inland from the mouth. They appeared to know where they were going and walked straight on through to the next hunting area on the ice without exploring about on the land. If you are away from such mountain passes between fiords and are up higher on the land, I think it is quite unlikely you would see any polar bears, let alone disturb them. Later in summer, adult bears are known to go inland and up onto glaciers on NE Baffin and Bylot islands to fast while waiting for freeze-up later in summer, and similar things have been reported in summer from Greenland but these activities, also, do not appear to conflict in terms of timing or geography with your ski camp. As for the single subadult bear you saw, one can see the occasional bear almost anywhere in the Arctic at one time or another but such an event is not something you could reasonably be expected to specifically anticipate or plan for in terms of avoidance or possible disturbance, so long as you keep your camp clean and free of attractants for a possible scavenging individual. In summary, on the basis of my general knowledge and experience with polar bears on southeastern Baffin Island, and the literature on polar bear movements from satellite tracking of bears in Baffin Bay, it seems very unlikely to me that your ski camp and activities on nearby glaciers, at the time you plan to be active, would have any impact on polar bears. I hope that helps a bit. Yours truly, Ian Stirling -- Dr. Ian Stirling, OC,FRSC Adjunct Professor Department of Biological Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9 and: Research Scientist Emeritus Wildlife Research Division Environment and Climate Change Canada https://uofa.ualberta.ca/biological-sciences/faculty-and-staff/adjunct/ian- stirling.

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